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Following the conclusion of the first round of national selection trials for the 2012 Australian Rowing Team, the Olympic and Paralympic Shadow Squads have been reduced to 55 athletes. 66 athletes were subject to four days of trials on the Nepean River and the Sydney International Regatta Centre from December 15-18, with the majority of these rowers progressing to the next stage of the selection race.

No one knew for sure what the problem was. The only certainty was that there was one. For the very first time, the United States had failed to qualify the men’s eight for an upcoming Olympics at the preceding world championships. The men’s eight that had gone to Bled, Slovenia, with what most believed was a real chance to medal after finishing fourth at the final world cup stop in Lucerne only weeks before, had failed to make the A final and then finished eighth overall, missing the last qualifying spot for 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Alan Campbell wins men's single scull while Anna Watkins takes the women's single scull win. Andy Triggs Hodge winner of the men's pair with Alex Partridge. Will Jurgen Grobler stay with the pair's new combination or will he move to another boat class as in 2004? See the GB news page for more while results are here.

Drew Ginn (VIC) and Joshua Dunkley Smith (VIC) continued their 100 per cent record in the men’s sweep program this morning at the first round of Rowing Australia’s 2012 national selection trials. It was another near perfect day for rowing at the Sydney International Regatta Centre as Drew Ginn and Josh Dunkley-Smith combined with 2008 Beijing Olympic Games silver medallists Cameron McKenzie-McHarg (VIC) and James Marburg (VIC) to win the first rotation of the men’s coxless fours.

Australia’s elite rowers will aim to impress the national selectors when the first round of trials for the 2012 national team begins today, December 15th. 66 athletes are vying for positions in London next year and will complete a 5km time trial on the Nepean River in Penrith on Thursday morning.

The event described recently by Alan Campbell - Britain's top single sculler - as the one "where it all begins for the Olympics" will go ahead this Saturday in Boston, Lincolnshire. Boston perennially hosts the second GB Rowing Team Winter Assessment of the season - an endurance trial on a 5km stretch of water. This is third time lucky for the sport following cancellations in 2009 and 2010 because of snow.

The Christmas Regatta at Lake Karapiro over the weekend of December 16-18 will pitch the cream of New Zealand's rowers against each other in some fascinating encounters ahead of the New Year and the start of the build up to the Olympic Games. World champion Mahe Drysdale is just one of the stars in action.

Writing exclusively for Metro, rower Greg Searle describes the gruelling training the Team GB athletes are being put through ahead of the London 2012 Olympics. I returned from Spain at the weekend after spending two weeks in what can only be described as a ‘leisure centre in the sky’ – located up a mountain in the Sierra Nevada range.

Canada’s National Rowing Championships had an extra competitive element to them this year. Competitors hoping to be on Canada’s national team made their first step towards getting into an Olympic boat for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Rowing Australia has named its initial Prospective Squad that will go through the selection process in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The returns of Olympians Duncan Free (QLD) and Sam Conrad (QLD) amongst the 63 athletes that have been chosen are the two biggest additions to the Australian team that won a record 10 medals at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Slovenia earlier this year.

New Zealand’s Mahe Drysdale held off nearly 250 single scullers from around the world to cross the line first in Switzerland’s 25th Armada Cup. Making it a double-header for New Zealand, Emma Twigg then finished as the fastest woman and 27th overall.

The autumn weather at Boston’s famed Head of the Charles regatta on the East Coast of the United States can be unpredictable. Last weekend the rain stayed away, the temperatures remained mild and crowds flocked to the Charles River to watch nearly 9,000 rowers compete in the two-day regatta.

In the final race, race number 294 of the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic showed that 10 years of perseverance had paid off. Knapkova won the women’s single sculls.

Jochem Verberne is the Manager for Network Development & Corporate Relations WWF International and is currently responsible for the WWF – World Rowing partnerships. He was in Bled this week to watch the 2011 World Rowing Championships.

Every four years, in the year before the Olympic Games, the b-finals at the World Rowing Championships become exceedingly crucial. The race becomes one for Olympic qualification spots. On the final day of racing at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, pure heart and soul was required to get as quickly as possible to the...

Just when the rowing world thought every women’s single sculls final was going to look the same, the 2010 World Championships came and the status quo was truly shaken up. At last year’s championships the pocket dynamite, Frida Svensson of Sweden...

Ekaterina Karsten, born Ekaterina Khodotovich, is a true rowing legend. In Belarus, her successes have made her a national hero. Her gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games was the first gold medal for the newly independent state and she also received the...

Today, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand became a five-time World Champion at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. Racing in the men’s single sculls, Drysdale match the great Peter-Michael Kolbe to become a five-time World Champion and in the process broke Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic’s winning streak.

The 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia saw all of the expected boats going through from the semifinal races. In a day of slight cross-tail winds and sunny warm conditions, countries fought it out to be in the top three so that they could advance...

Rowing rivalries don’t come much better than this. Much has been made of it, and for good reason. It is one that has spanned the last two years and the current score of wins against losses between the two is a weighty 9-0 from international events.

Fabiana Beltrame became the first Brazilian ever to win a World Champion title and she did it today at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. Making the most of the warm temperatures and slightly bumpy conditions on Lake Bled, Beltrame dominated the lightweight women’s single sculls from start to finish.

Marcel Hacker has been around for a long time; he entered the international sculling scene in 1994 with a Junior World Champion title in the quadruple sculls. After a Junior title in the single in 1995 as well as a silver medal in the Under 23 single the following year, Hacker had his Senior debut winning two silver medals in 1997 and 1998...

The 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia continued with semifinals in the men’s quadruple sculls, men’s pair, women’s double sculls and men’s single sculls. Crews qualifying for the final would also secure spots in the 2012...

At 13:24 (CET) on the town end of Lake Bled, 48 rowers and six coxswains will be sitting nervously in the starting blocks. They will be ready to race in the final of the women’s eight at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia.

The German men’s eight proved that they had what it took to remain on top when they won their final at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. In choppy, tail-cross wind conditions Germany continued their winning streak, relegating the...

Nail-biting semifinals at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia continued to see boats earn qualifying spots for the 2012 Olympic Games. It also meant that the line up for the finals were decided. In the lightweight men’s four Olympic Champions, Denmark nearly missed out when a sprint to the line saw them almost...

The highlight of today’s adaptive racing was the final of the AS women’s single and ID mixed coxed at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. The single saw Ukraine’s Alla Lyshenko regain the World Champion title and in the...

Alongside Olympic qualification highs and lows, the composition of key crews has been eye-catching at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. World Rowing spoke to these crews, who combine an explosive and hopefully fast combination of youth and experience on their way to World Championship glory.

The Blue Riband men’s eight final is the highlight of Thursday’s racing at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. Getting underway at 13:09 (CET) the crews are; Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands and...

The waters of Lake Bled have been rather bumpy over the past couple of days but today the best rowers in the world enjoyed flat, calm conditions at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. In a morning of repechage racing, crews were racing for much more than semifinal spots, they were also racing to keep their Olympic...

The quadruple sculls is the thinking person’s boat. Each of the four rowers have to coordinate two oars. They also have to slot in perfect synchronicity with their three team mates and the other six oars. Day 3 at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia featured the men’s and women’s quadruple sculls...

Today’s repechages at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia held particular significance for the countries competing. Finishing third meant the end of their Olympic qualification dreams from this regatta.

Rowing, like a small number of other sports, give athletes a second chance to advance to the next round of racing. This second chance, the repechage, was raced today in the adaptive rowing events at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia....

The near perfect rowing conditions on Lake Bled saw Greece’s Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou close in on the World Best Time when they raced in their heat of the lightweight women’s double sculls. Giazitzidou and Tsiavou were racing in day two of the...

Lake Bled turned on ideal conditions for the first day of adaptive rowing racing at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. Calm, flat waters greeted the adaptive rowers who were racing over 1000m on the 2000m regatta course. At the end of the...

The history of rowing around Bled, Slovenia goes back over 100 years and at the most recent end of its history a rower named Iztok Cop has made a huge name for himself. Cop is a household name in Slovenia. He is Slovenia’s most successful Olympic athlete ever and he will be competing on his home course, on Lake Bled in the men’s...

Heats racing continued in the afternoon at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia and finishing times closed in on the World Best Times as tail wind conditions added to boat speeds. Most impressive was the men’s four where times were less...

The 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia opened today for day one of heats racing. By the end of the morning two boats had qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games. New Zealand and Germany had earned a spot in the women’s quadruple sculls. All...

Get insight into the 14 Olympic class events that will be racing at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. Included here are four Blue Riband events (men’s and women’s single scull and men’s and women’s eight), with an overview of the rowers to watch in these boat classes.

The end of August shall be the pinnacle of the 2011 World Rowing season with the world's best getting together in Bled, Slovenia, for the 2011 World Rowing Championships. The event opens on 28 August and races take place over eight days.

Slovenia’s biggest sporting event for 2011 and rowing’s most important regatta of the year, the World Rowing Championships is just around the corner. Racing begins on 28 August and the best rowers from throughout the world are currently in the throes of their final preparation phase.